I am very careful about not 'stealing' a friends baby name, or immediate family etc. I know it would annoy me if I had my heartset on a name and then have someone use is jus t before me. What do you think the ettiquette is on children already born though? LIke a toddler or older child's name.

I have a distant relative of a family member, like a cousins wife's daughter, I have met once in my life! I feel silly even asking but do you think I could use the name of this persons child, who is 2, even though I did not get the idea off them obviously as I dont talk to them. I just like this name, its also the name of my sisters friends sisters' daughter complicated!!

It feels fine to me, but when I mentioned to my sister she said 'nope i would not use it' in the case of the distant family members relation. She is over the top with this sort of thing though, like does not want to offend anyone even though there is no reason for offense!! This just seems silly to me, apart from Facebook where i may see posts etc, I have no contact with this person so it seems dumb to forgo this name for this reason. I can understand if it was a family member i have a lot of contact with though.

What would you do? Its dumb hey, like not even an issue

Distant family member no worries

Of course you can use it.

If it's a name you really love and it's someone that you rarely see I would go for it. I know some people are very funny about it but to me it's like the ultimate compliment. My DS is Patrick and I have a friend who I see quite a lot, who called her DS (born 2 years after mine) Patrick. Afterwards she asked me if I minded and I said no, not at all. It does make life a bit crazy when they are around but with different middle names (starting with different letters) it's not been a problem.

I think people have different ideas about what is acceptable and what isn't. In the situation you are describing I would go for it.

HTH.

If its someone you never see, Id go for it. If it was your bestie/close family, that would be a different story.

Unless it is super unusual I'd use it.

I'm in the position where I love the name jemima but my cousin has used it for her daughter and the family are all pretty close so it's a no go! Yours sounds much more distant though so I say go for it!!

I literally cannot think of any possibly occasion where i will see this person again in my life, maybe a funeral, which would be the only one and thats a maybe as well, very distant not blood related to me at all. Obviously with facebook this person will know and I dont want them thinking oh you stole the name off me, silly! It seems with no contact in our everyday lives it would have to be petty of them to have an issue.

I don't think it should be an issue in that case. I think the only time I wouldn't use a name is if my sibling used it for their child and possibly if a very close friend used it too.

i dont think its an issue - oi say go for it??

whats the name op? if you dont mind sharing??

Unless it was a rather unique name I'd go for it.

I personally wouldn't. It would feel weird to me to name my child the same name as a family member (without it being in memory of someone etc) But that's just me.

As for using a name that someone has mentioned to you. Unless that person is a close friend or family member then it's up for grabs. But only if it's a name you actually really love & not just to spite someone (because I've known people to do this)

I would use it. My #4 child has the same name as one of my 1st cousins. We don't see each other and very unlikely that we ever will again. We chose the name because of a lovely lady we met, and even though I knew I had a cousin with the same name it didn't worry me. Besides that it was the only name DH and I could agree on! LOL

Funny...I've just posted a reply in a similar thread saying the same thing. My DS2 is also Patrick and my best friend's DS (also my Godson) is Patrick too. She was delighted and her DS was so proud that we wanted to choose his name. There is a 7 year difference between them but at no stage has it every caused a problem.

In your particular case, I don't even think I would've given it a second thought.

If it were a very unusual/distinctive name, then I wouldn't use it.

(For instance, I don't think anyone in your extended family or network of friends, Buggy, should use "Denver" because it is such a distinctive name and would (in my opinion) seem like copy catting...)

But otherwise, fair game!